Happily After? Spring Blossoms
by Lucinda
Summary: The start of Logan's search for happiness.  Will he find it with Marie?


Fic: Happily After? Spring Blossoms 1/?   
  
  
Author: Lucinda  
Rating: Pg this part  
Pairing: Spring Blossoms will be Logan/Marie  
note: this is in response to Rebecca's Challenge.  
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from the X-Men movie or comics.  
Distribution: please ask first.  
  
  
  
It was spring when Logan returned to the mansion in   
Westchester. Charles Xavier had promised him almost a year and a half ago that he   
would have a home here as long as the mansion stood. Logan felt in need   
of a place that he could feel safe. He had gone looking for his past.   
He had wanted answers to what had been done to him that had left him with   
metal claws, no memories of his past, and horrible nightmares.  
  
He had gone to place the Professor had told him about, a   
facility located by Alkali Lake. It had been abandoned. Nobody was there   
when he arrived. However, whatever had happened, they hadn't had time to   
take everything with them when the had left. There had been a cell that   
had traces of his scent lingering in it. Another had traces of the   
mutant called Sabertooth. There had been almost a half dozen cells with   
traces of almost remembered scents.  
  
There had still been filing cabinets in a storage room. He had   
found a medical file on himself, as well as files on the other people that   
had been confined here. He had papers and documents that said exactly what   
procedures had been done on him. He had been able to understand   
some of them. He had also learned that he had once been Major John Logan, a   
decorated military officer.  
  
He had no idea why he had been chosen.  
  
The personal information he had found on himself had been   
fragmentary, bits and pieces left almost intact after a fire had raged in the   
office they had been stored in. He had been left with the impression the man   
in charge had liked to gloat over his subjects.  
  
They had created something in this lab. It had escaped their   
control, and had nearly destroyed the compound as it tried to escape. Doors   
had been torn from their hinges, shelves and cabinets hurled across rooms,   
shattering observation windows. There had been the remains of long   
dead laboratory technicians and a few doctors left to moulder where they   
had been struck down. One torn hinge had caught a bit of golden brown fur.  
  
They had played god here. Unsurprisingly, their creation had   
rebelled, and rose up against them. They had fallen, bleeding and shattered   
to the floor. Alkali Lake held nothing more for him.  
  
His discoveries had brought back the nightmares. He slept,   
and they once more slashed his body open for their experimental testing.   
They traced his bones as he was strapped naked to a cold metal table. He was   
dropped into a cold tube of a slimey fluid......  
  
He hoped the nightmares would slow once he returned to   
Xavier's. Once he was surrounded by people that knew nothing of the torments of   
labs. The murmur of so many ordinary lives should help keep him aware that he   
was in now, not the tormented then.  
  
Perhaps he could even find a special someone to be with.   
Someone to help him banish the loneliness of being a man without a past, a   
wandering enigma. Someone he could build new memories with.  
  
end part 1.  
  
  
  
  
Logan returned to the mansion quietly. He found the gates  
standing open, and drove the motorcycle inside. He left it parked in the  
garage. He quietly went into the house, and up to the room he had been in  
all those months ago. Logan took a shower, locked the door, and went to sleep.  
  
Scott had found the bike. Now, whispers were circulating that  
he had returned. Some of the students remembered that he had been here.  
He had stabbed Marie in he chest during a nightmare. It was the only thing  
he'd done here that he felt really guilty about.  
  
Marie found him sitting in the garden under a large maple  
tree. She sat down beside him, and asked if he was planning to stay.  
  
The year and a half that he'd been away had changed her in some  
ways. She wasn't the slender, nervous girl he'd met in Canada. She had  
grown taller, and her figure had grown noticeably more curved in some  
places. Marie was defiantely a woman in that regards. She also seemed to be  
less hesitant. She seemed more certain of who she was, and that she had  
a place in the world.  
  
Most surprisingly, she had decided that she knew what she  
wanted in life. She wanted to be an X-Man, to fight for the future. She also  
wanted him to be a part of her future. To stay with the team, and perhaps,  
here she looked up at him through her long dark eyelashes, he could stay with  
her?  
  
Something inside Logan's heart began to flutter wildly when she  
made her offer. Marie had grown into a lovely woman. She seemed to have  
found the answers to who she was, and what she wanted from life. She  
wanted him. She wanted them to have a future together.  
  
Even if they still hadn't found an answer to how her powers  
worked. But Jean and a new doctor, a big blue furred mutant named Hank McCoy  
were looking into the matter. They were hoping to learn how she absorbed  
people, so she could learn not to absorb them. Some aspects of a future  
together would have to wait. Maybe wait a long time.  
  
Logan could be patient. He could give Marie as much time as  
they needed to build a future together. Besides that, there was more to  
a relationship than just the physical aspect of things. They could  
begin building the foundation of a lasting relationship.  
  
Spring was the time of hope after all.  
  
  
end part 2.  
  
  
  
Logan had decided that if Marie wanted to spend her future as   
an X-Man, she needed to know how to fight. He had only intended to   
teach Marie, but somehow, word had circulated, and now he had about a   
dozen people showing up in the mornings for lessons in hand to hand combat. He   
had been a bit surprised by this development, but had decided that  
it would be good for the others to learn good fighting techniques as well.  
  
Most of the people that remembered Logan from his earlier   
visit were astonished. He had ended up teaching a class on self defense and   
basic fighting. Logan was teaching patiently, and he hadn't lost his   
temper once with any of his students. The only people not taken completely by   
surprise were Storm and Xavier. Xavier had only commented  
that Logan was a man of hidden depths.  
  
There had been many many tests on Marie and her abilities by   
Dr. Jean Grey and the new Doctor, named Hank McCoy. He was the first doctor   
that Logan had met, in his memory at least, that didn't cause a 'gut him   
or run' response. Dr. McCoy was surprised and delighted to  
finally have a patient that seem d unconcerned by the fact that he   
was six feet tall, covered with blue fur, and had the claws and fangs of a   
beast.  
  
They had a few theories about how Marie's ability to absorb   
worked. To the dismay of some of the students, they had come to the   
conclusion that any further information would require monitoring Marie  
while she absorbed someone. There hadn't been any volunteers.  
  
Logan (he still thought of himself as Logan, even knowing that   
he'd had an actual first name) had listened to all this as Doctor McCoy   
explained their studies of Marie's unusual ability. He decided, when the blue   
doctor had finished, to tell him some of what he had found.  
  
"The Professor told me about a former research base that he   
thought might have some clues to my past. He was right." Logan paused,   
seeing that he had the attention of McCoy. " I still don't really know who I   
used to be. I don't know when or where I was born. I still don't know why   
I was selected to be worked on. What I do have is a folder full of   
records on what they did to me. There are charts and diagrams, and stapled   
stacks of scientific papers. It might make more sense to you than it did to   
me. One other thing - the place they did this to me, I wasn't the only one.   
They also had Sabertooth, and a few other people I ought to know but   
can't remember. I brought the medical files on them with me as well. I   
can bring those down here after lunch."  
  
Logan thought a bit about the difficulty in researching Marie's   
mutation. She didn't know how to control her power because nobody   
knew how it worked. They didn't know how it worked because nobody would   
volunteer to let her drain them while the doctors studied it. This meant that   
Marie had a limited future, without real human contact.  
  
"If you still need someone to help study Marie's ability, I   
can help. I have a healing factor, so I should be able to recover just fine.   
Marie deserves to be able to have any future she wants, not just what she   
can make without touching people." Logan's voice echoed slightly in the lab.  
  
" Gracious, are you volunteering to be her.. hmm ..partner in  
experimentation?" Hank looked at Logan in surprise. This was an   
entirely unexpected offer. "One might almost suspect that you have feelings   
for Marie, making such an offer."  
  
To his surprise, Logan was looking determinedly at his toes, a   
faint blush on his face. "Marie is a real sweetheart. I want her to have   
a happy future. Maybe a future with me, maybe not. Thing is, I know how it   
bothers her that people are afraid of her. No matter what, she'll be   
happier if she can touch people safely. I want to help her get that future."  
  
The mystery was cleared up a bit for Hank McCoy. Logan was   
definitely sweet on Marie. He was wiling to be observed by scientists in what   
could be painful experiments to offer Marie a chance for something like a   
normal future. He hoped to be part of her future. He paused to consider   
the possible future of Logan and Marie. He couldn't quite picture them   
happily married, with two children and a dog.  
  
end part 3.  
  
  
  
Marie and Logan had sat down by a small stream on the mansion  
grounds and had a long talk about relationships. They had taken a picnic  
basket full of food with them, so that they would be able to talk as long  
as they needed.  
  
Logan had confessed his concern that Marie might decide he was  
to old for her, that she wanted someone closer to her own age. He had  
worried that she might want someone that had a complete past, that knew when  
their birthday was. He had been afraid that because he was lacking a  
past, she might judge him less of a man. He had been worried  
that she could get hurt, and he would be unable to protect her, that  
he would fail her somehow. He had been worried that she might want  
someone that had never been drafted as an experimental test subject.  
  
Marie had been expecting some of this, having had long months  
while he was away to consider all the benefits and disadvantages of pursuing a  
relationship with Logan. She told him that the guys her own age  
needed to take some more time growing up. She wasn't worried about his past,  
because they could make a future. They could choose any day he wanted and  
call it his birthday, and have cake and ice cream and presents. He had not  
failed to protect her in all the time they had been together, she didn't  
think he would fail her now. She had swore to him that his past, whatever it  
might hold, didn't matter to her.  
  
For her part, Marie had been afraid that Logan would think she  
was to young. That he would want someone older, more exotic, more like  
Jean. She was afraid that he would think she was to inexperienced, that she  
hadn't learned enough about life. Afraid that he would secretly be  
comparing her to Jean. She had been afraid that nobody would ever want to be in a  
relationship with her because of her mutation.  
  
Logan had pulled her into his lap, hugging her close to him.  
He had told her that the only reason he had flirted with Jean - other than  
because it annoyed Scott, was because he didn't trust her. When Marie had  
given him a puzzled look, he had explained that he didn't trust doctors, or  
medical labs because of his past. He preferred to keep them  
away. He had figured the best way to keep Jean back was to make her  
think it was all her idea. So, he flirted with her. Jean found him to  
intense, to something, and tried to keep him at arms length, not realizing  
that that was exactly how he wanted it.  
  
He told her that he understood how much traveling on her own  
from Mississippi to Canada had aged her, not outside, but inside where it  
counted. Besides, she'd had a few other people in her head, and  
even if the memories had faded, it would probably leave her a bit wiser in human  
nature.  
  
Then, he had told her that he had volunteered to work with Hank  
to help unravel the mysteries of how her mutation actually worked. Then,  
she would be able to learn how to make it not work. She would be able to  
touch people, and live a normal life if she chose. Or to just do some  
normal things, like shake someone hand when you meet them.  
  
She had been moved to tears by that, knowing how much Logan  
disliked labs. She had had nightmares of labs and painful things done in  
them for weeks after the fight with Magneto, when Logan had risked his life  
to save her by having her absorb his healing ability. She couldn't remember  
everything she had absorbed, just memories of memory. And the  
knowledge of how to strip and clean a rifle.  
  
With tear filled eyes, and hope shining in their hearts, they  
decided to try to have a loving relationship. One that was better than the  
fairy tales, because it was real.  
  
end part 4.  
  
  
  
  
As the days passed into weeks, Logan and Marie were often seen   
taking long walks together. They would just go meandering in the woods,   
spending time together and admiring nature. Logan would point out and name   
the may songbirds, and Marie was often carrying wildflowers  
in her hands when they returned.  
  
It was incredibly sweet.  
  
The more difficult part of their budding love came in the form   
of the testing to help study Marie's powers. They would hook up monitors   
and wires to Logan and Marie, so that the doctors would monitor every   
fluctuation of either of them. They had their heart rate, and blood pressure, and   
brain waves and various other bodily functions all making graphs and   
numbers on a small horde of monitors and machinery. The lab  
gave Logan an unpleasant nervous feeling that wasn't helped by the   
wiring in the slightest.  
  
The most immediate discovery that had resulted in all the   
testing was that Marie's absorbtion wasn't instantaneous. The longer she held   
contact, the more she absorbed. Brief contact left Logan wobbly, but still   
standing, and accelerated Marie's healing a small degree. Longer contact   
rendered Logan unconscious, and Marie had his healing factor at full power.   
Sometimes, touching Logan made all her senses sharper, so that she   
could hear everything. The memories were the last to be absorbed. The   
briefer the contact, the fewer memories she absorbed.  
  
Jean had started monitoring the sessions telepathically as   
well. It turned out that one aspect of Marie's abilities was actually similar   
in some regards to telepathic ability. Her mind reached out, and pulled   
memories from Logan's mind. That was how she was able to remember things   
that had happened to people she had absorbed.  
  
Jean and the Professor had decided to try teaching her mental   
shielding, focusing on how to keep other minds out. They had   
thought that this might slow or prevent her from absorbing the memories of   
someone she touched. It was tedious practice, and gave her frequent headaches.   
Amazingly, it was helping. She was now able to not absorb the   
memories or aspects of the personality of someone she touched.  
  
They had even managed to get a few other people to volunteer   
once or twice to help test Marie's progress. She had briefly been able to   
shoot optic blasts like Scott. They hadn't repeated that experiment,   
having had to repair the wall of the med lab afterwards. There had been better   
luck and safety involved when she borrowed the abilities of  
Bobby Drake, and later of Jubilee, a girl that could generate explosions.  
  
As for the more physical aspects of her absorbtion, Dr. McCoy   
had concluded that she had a specialized metamorphic ability, actually   
reshaping her body to duplicate the abilities of others. He was still trying   
to figure out exactly how her body made all the changes.  
  
They had been very hopeful that she could eventually learn to   
control her powers, using them only when she choose. Frustratingly, while   
they had figured out some of the how, Marie still couldn't control the   
absorbtion of people's physical abilities. She was consoled  
slightly by the fact that she didn't end up with other people's   
memories in her head anymore.  
  
Marie was impatient for the day that she and Logan could really   
touch each other.  
  
end part 5.  
  
  
As the time passed, Marie and Logan were more often seen walking  
together. They were now starting to make some progress on   
controlling her powers. She still had to work some on the concentration it required   
to contain her power, but she was learning. Logan had compared it to   
learning to hold her temper.  
  
The Professor was of the opinion that this relationship was good   
for Logan, drawing him more into the group, making him feel like part of   
a family. Marie had seemed very sincere in her desire to be in a   
relationship with Logan. Hopefully things would go well for her and Logan. She   
had become much more self confident already.  
  
Ororo was not offering Marie her congratulations as easily as   
everyone else. She would offer wishes for 'their happiness', but she would   
rarely stay to talk about Marie's relationship. She had seemed to be   
troubled by something lately, but refused to share any details, saying only that   
it was a personal matter, and they could not help with it.  
  
Hank McCoy was a bit concerned about the idea of Logan and Marie  
together as well. On the surface, it didn't seem quite so bad,   
Marie was old enough now that she wasn't a minor, she legally could do what   
she pleased in a relationship. But he wondered how seriously she took   
what they had. Was Marie actually ready to commit herself to a future with   
one man, and only that one man? He could tell that Logan wanted a future   
with someone. Logan might not want to settle down in a little house and   
get an office job, but he obviously wanted a special someone  
that was there for him, someone that he could cherish. He was   
willing to go to such lengths to help Marie, to try to build a future.  
  
Hank only hoped that Logan wasn't building a foundation on   
shifting sand.  
  
end part 6.  
  
  
  
  
Ororo wanted to be happy for Logan, she really did. He had  
found some answers as to his past. That had to count for something, although  
she could tell he didn't really feel like he belonged anywhere, as if he had  
no roots. Logan wanted to make a future, to make up for his lack of a  
past. Ororo understood that, having partly come to the X-Men to make herself a  
future.  
  
She only wished Logan's future wasn't with Marie.  
  
Ororo had concluded that she was attracted to Logan when he had  
first come to the mansion. He was fit, and had this magnetic appeal, and  
he lived with such intensity. She had been afraid to act on her feelings  
when he was first there, instead focusing on the crisis with  
Magneto, and tending to Senator Kelley. Logan had been gone before   
she could bring herself to consider a future with him.  
  
When he came back, Marie had swooped after him like a falcon,  
snatching him up for herself. Ororo couldn't blame Marie for wanting Logan.  
Nor could she blame Logan for wanting a future. She had to admit that  
she hadn't given him any indication of her feelings, how would he know  
that she was even an option for him? Her penance for that reluctance to risk  
exposing her feelings was to see him with Marie.  
  
She had to admit that Logan had appeared to be happy. She  
almost wished that he wasn't, so that he wouldn't be with Marie. But that  
would be petty. She didn't want Logan to be alone and separate from the  
group. Nor could she see the harm in Marie learning to control her abilities.  
  
Once Marie had control of her powers, there wouldn't be any  
reason she and Logan could not be together in every sense of the word. A  
tremor passed through Ororo at the idea. She wanted Logan to be happy. That  
didn't mean she had to be here through all of it. She would go speak to the  
Professor. Perhaps he could find her a mission away from the mansion's newest  
couple.  
  
end part 7.  
  
  
  
  
Logan was feeling fairly good about life. He was accepted   
here. It didn't matter that he wasn't normal. He had a future ahead of him   
with a charming woman that wasn't afraid of the secrets in his past. They   
were discussing the future, trying to cover the possibilities of life   
together.  
  
Sometimes, it seemed like she wanted to go away somewhere, to   
live just the two of them, and start a family together. He was positive that   
Marie would have adorable children. Other times, she wanted them to stay   
at the mansion, part of the X-Men, and not risk bringing children into a   
world that would fear and hate them. He was certain that if they stayed   
together, with love and trust, they could manage whatever the future held for them.  
  
He was supposed to be meeting Marie tonight. They had dinner   
reservations at this french place in town. Logan suspected that   
Marie had planned something. He was looking forward to finding out what it   
was.  
  
  
Marie had just been cleared for having managed reasonable   
control of her power. Jean and Scott had been testing her in the med-lab,   
under the observation of Dr. McCoy. They had concluded that she could hold   
her powers even under distraction of strong emotions. She could have a normal   
life. She could have Logan, in every sense.  
  
  
* * * *  
  
Ororo Munroe departed the mansion, traveling to New Orleans to   
investiage some mutant activities in the area. She wasn't certain   
how long she would be gone, or what she would find. She was only confident   
that it would be easier on her heart than watching the man she cared for in   
the arms of another.  
  
end Spring Blossoms. 


End file.
